Nashik: Gangster Abu Salem, who was imprisoned for life in connection with the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts and another case of a builder's murder, has filed a petition in a special court to determine his release date after completing his sentence. Salem said in his application that he has spent more than 23 years in prison and sought a tentative release date.
Salem said he had written a letter on July 20 to the superintendent of Nashik jail, where he is currently lodged, seeking to obtain a release date after taking into consideration the total period of his incarceration. His petition said he received no information from the prison authorities after which he moved to a special TADA court to know how many more days he has to undergo the imprisonment.
Salem, a convict in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, was extradited from Portugal on November 11, 2005, after a prolonged legal battle and has remained in prison ever since. On February 25, 2015, a special TADA court awarded life imprisonment to Salem in another case for murdering Mumbai-based builder Pradeep Jain in 1995 along with his driver Mehndi Hassan. In 2017, he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the 1993 Mumbai blasts, which killed 257 people.
Then-deputy Prime Minister LK Advani has assured Portuguese authorities that the gangster would not be visited by the death penalty or imprisonment for a term beyond 25 years. In 2022, the Supreme Court said the Centre was "bound" to honour its commitment given to Portugal and release gangster Abu Salem on completion of his 25-year sentence in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case.
However, a bench of Justices SK Kaul and MM Sundresh had refused the plea of Salem that his detention in Portugal be considered while calculating 25 years of imprisonment and said that his detention period will start from October 12, 2005, when he was brought to the country after extradition.
Abu Salem was also convicted by a Delhi court in 2018 in connection with an extortion case dating back to 2002. The court found Abu Salem guilty of demanding Rs 5 crore as protection money from a Delhi-based businessman.
Inside the jails in Maharashtra, Salem barely remained out of the limelight, once when he was shot at by an inmate inside the Taloja Central Jail in Raigad on June 27, 2013, and on another occasion, when he was attacked by an inmate with a metal spoon inside the Arthur Road Central Jail, Mumbai in July 2010. He survived both incidents with minor injuries, but left the jail authorities shaken.
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